1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to providing relevant search results using incremental search with minimal text entry, and more specifically to incrementally selecting and providing relevant search engines in response to a user query.
2. Discussion of Related Art
On devices with overloaded keyboards, such as portable phones, it is inconvenient to type an entire search query before obtaining results.
One new development in search engine technology intended to address this issue is the method of incremental search with minimal text entry. In systems incorporating incremental search with minimal text entry, search results are returned as text is entered. Each time the user enters or deletes a character, a new search is conducted using the partial search string entered. Depending on the efficiency of the search algorithm, the results expected by the user are displayed even before a full word of text is entered. Therefore, the user need not enter all the characters in the keyword he has in mind in order to obtain the results corresponding to the keyword.
For example, in order to obtain the results for “pizza” using incremental search, the user is not required to first enter the entire word “pizza” and then request a search. As soon as the user enters the character “p,” results based on the partial search query are returned. Once the user enters the character “i,” a new search is performed and the result set is narrowed. If the user sees the results for “pizza” among the set returned after entering “pi”, he selects the result immediately without entering any more characters.
Incremental search with minimal text entry is particularly useful on input-constrained devices. However, it may also be used on systems with full-size keyboards, in order to reduce the effort required to obtain the required results. The data space on which the search is performed can be either from a single domain (for example, only entertainment content) or from multiple domains (for example, entertainment content, phone directories, stock quotes, etc). There are many variations of the minimal text entry methodology depending on the specialized data domains in which the search is performed. For example, in data domains that require entry of names of people, the initials of the person concerned could be a valid search. Partial prefixes of the components of the names of persons or titles of movies or books could be also used.
Another way to minimize the required amount of text entry is by using a query-completion system. For example, browsers designed for mobile phones, including third-party browsers such as the Opera mini Browser as well as proprietary phone browsers, provide text composition capabilities for typing text into webpage fields. When the webpage field is a search field, these capabilities can aid query composition on overloaded keypads such as the numeric keypads on phones.
Browsers can aid in query composition using a variety of methods. They can provide a menu of previous search queries entered, so the user can select the appropriate query as desired. The browser can also invoke the phone's text editing facilities (which a user invokes while typing in messages, for instance) such as the T9 dictionary mode or the multiple-tap keystroke disambiguation mode found commonplace on numeric keypads of phones. When a phone browser uses text composition capabilities such as the T9 system, the refinement and selection states are often combined: the user gets the next refinement choice being offered by the system only when s/he tabs to pass a previous refinement being offered by the system.
Google Suggest is another system designed to construct search queries predictively, based on a partial query typed by the user. As the user types his query, the Google Suggest system allows the user to refine the query string by providing up to ten possible query refinement choices. The partial query that has been entered by the user is always a strict prefix of each of the refinement choices offered by Google Suggest. At every refinement point, the user can either select the choice (using a Mouse Left Click or Enter Key while Mouse focus is on that choice) to launch the exact choice in the Google Web Search Engine. Alternatively, the user can use the choice as an incremental refinement in the query by using the Mouse Right Click while focus is on that choice and continue to add more input to the query. At any point the user can hit Enter to pass the current contents of the text field to the Google search engine, or left-click one of the other links for “Images”, “Maps”, “Videos” to launch the same query in any one of these specific search engines of Google. However, at no point during the query refinement process does the Google Suggest system offer query-specific links; only query refinements are provided.